Saturday, February 28, 2015

These are the burning five questions we must know about Cheryl Pierson. Are you ready?

What’s weird about your name?

I have two weird things about my name that I’ve had to explain all my life. My first name is not pronounced SHARE-yl, like 99% of the rest of the world with that name. My parents must have sat around for ages figuring how to pick a name that would be just enough “off” to require a double take every time I introduce myself. It’s CHAIR-yl, with a “hard” CH—like chicken, church, or CHAIR.

The second weird thing is my middle name. (Yes my parents were on a roll here!) It’s Kathlyn. I have met a total of two other people in my life with that name. This is why my daughter is named JESSICA.

What was the car you learned to drive in?

My parents bought a ’63 Impala that I shared with my sister who had moved back home after her divorce. It was white and one of those fantastic old cars that I wish I still had. Even though it was old when I got it, I loved that thing. (I was 16 in 1973.) The car I learned to drive stick shift on was a mid-year special edition Capri. Racing red and NO air conditioning. Still the “car of my heart.”

How many states have you lived in?

Only two. I was born in Oklahoma and lived here until I was 17. My dad worked for Baroid, an oil company, and was transferred to Charleston, West Virginia, the summer before I started my senior year of high school. I met my husband there, and Fate stepped in. He worked for the FAA, whose training facility is in Oklahoma City. So we moved back out here and have been in Oklahoma for the past 29 years.

Favorite food?

Fresh home grown tomatoes. With or without salt. They even beat chocolate out!

One book you couldn’t live without?

To Kill a Mockingbird. The great American novel has already been written.

Saturday, February 14, 2015

My name is Cecilia Corona. I’m a massage therapist out in Redlands, and I love it. To make people feel better is an amazing accomplishment. When I’m not massaging I love to sing. It’s one of the things I miss most about high school. I sang a lot and we performed at different places throughout the year.

Writing has opened up my mind a lot, and I enjoy losing myself in those places I’ve made up. It helps on those days that aren’t going quite right and you just need to get your mind off it. It has definitely been a safe haven for me.

I’ve only just begun my writing journey, but I would have to say my most recent novella, At First Snowfall, is my favorite story. I got to make up my own little world. Funny story about that is it all came to me in a dream. I woke up and immediately wrote everything down. My favorite character in the book is actually my heroine’s love interest Mauricio. He’s a man's man, loyal, and very much in love with Xiomara. That’s what I love about him. Also he’s a werewolf. How can you not like that?

[At First Snowfall is featured in the 2014 Christmas Collection from Victory Tales Press]

My writing process is crazy. I dream of things, write them down, and then think that would be a great story, and just go with it. So I guess you can say I fly by the seat of my pants, and roll with it. I also throw ideas at my family and see how they like it. I ask them: Does it make sense? Does it sound boring? Things like that. Sometimes, I get lost in my head and it makes sense, but when I get the idea out sometimes things don’t add up. So I have to bounce ideas off people. Then it all comes together.

I am very excited to say I have two projects
I’m going back and forth on. One is a fantasy novel about a mermaid and a
vampire and the other is about a psychic medium that is a massage therapist.
That is all I can say for now. I am looking forward to bringing you a full
novel soon.

The most important part (of my writing journey) is also the hardest part, criticism. I am a very sensitive person and it was hard to take any type of criticism, but in the end it makes you a better writer. So I can't complain. All I can do is take it with a grain of salt and move on.

When I’m not writing I love spending time with
not only my best friends and family but also snuggling with my three fur babies:
GaGa, Papi and Boe, and watch all my fantasy TV shows and movies. My favorite
all time movie has to be The Little Mermaid. When I’m not dreaming of swimming
with the dolphins, I love to read Dean Koontz novels or J.R. Wards' Black
Dagger Brotherhood series. Their characters are amazing. My new favorite author
is Gena Showalter. I've read her White Rabbit Chronicles and fell in love. From
book 1 to 3 she had me laughing, crying, even angry. It's those rollercoasters
of emotion that I enjoy riding on.

Hilary Duff - 2009

I would love to meet Hilary Duff. I grew up watching her first on Casper meets Wendy and then she went on to star on a poplar Disney TV show called Lizzie McGuire. Then later, she had a music career. Through all that she has been a roll model for me. She is kind and does a lot of charity work whether it’s for kids or for animals. If I ever had the opportunity to give like that, I would. Also she was born about three weeks after me, which is also pretty awesome to see how much she's accomplished in such a short time.Description and Brief Excerpt from At First Snowfall:

May all your dreams come true, takes on a whole new meaning when Xiomara finds out she's an Oracle with Fae witch powers, and her boyfriend is a werewolf from another realm.

When her half-brother shows up on her doorstep with his prophecy, the true nightmare begins. She must stand beside him in the battle of Galant or the evil Queen will destroy the kingdom.

Some faerytales are all too real, but if she can unleash her powers and learn to control them before the first snowfall, she just might find her happily ever after.

"When do you expect the first snowfall?" Mara asked. "Will we have enough time to get an army together to fight these things?"

"My birthday..." she murmured before she looked at them, each in turn. "Chaos would be unleashed on my birthday? Christmas!" Mara shook her head as if she couldn't take anymore.

"I don't want to hear this. Not yet... not now... Just…just stop talking about me and what I need to do." She started ahead of them as if she wanted to be as far away from them as possible.

"Xiomara, wait!" Adelaide yelled after her daughter.

Available at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PRQ5PUMhttp://www.smashwords.com/books/view/494101 and most online book retailers. Also available in print.Ms. Corona also has a story featured in the 2014 Autumn Collection titledDay of the Dead ~ (Dia de los Muertos)The Day of the Dead takes on a new meaning, when the dead don't stay dead. Dr. Valentina Bellmonte, a cancer survivor, is the new coroner at Hope Memorial. Her faith is put to the test when a body arrives at the morgue drained of blood and the man responsible for the crime is sporting fangs. Could vampires be real?
Her good friend, Dr. Xander Carlisle seems to know the truth, but he's unwilling to confide in her. He has a secret of his own and it's not just how he feels about her, but something else entirely, something he's forbidden to reveal.Also available at Amazon, Smashwords, and most online book retailers.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

“If you don’t have time to read, you don’t have the time (or the tools)to write. Simple as that.”
― Stephen King

Before I read westerns, I read a LOT of Stephen King. I started with Carrie, and was enthralled from start to finish by the girl who could call down wrath on the people who mistreated her.

The more I read, the more I admired the way King was able to pull me right into the story he was telling. (This was before I knew anything about POV or any of "the rules" of writing that King is so good at bending and breaking to write his bestsellers.)

These are the best books I’ve read over the last three or four years, the period during which I wrote The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon, Hearts in Atlantis, On Writing, and the as-yet-unpublished From a Buick Eight. In some way or other, I suspect each book in the list had an influence on the books I wrote.

As you scan this list, please remember that I’m not Oprah and this isn’t my book club. These are the ones that worked for me, that’s all. But you could do worse, and a good many of these might show you some new ways of doing your work. Even if they don’t, they’re apt to entertain you. They certainly entertained me.

This list was put together several years ago, when his book "On Writing" was published. How many of these have you read? If you were asked to create a list of the top five books you've read, what would be on your list?

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